The Cavs just ran into a barrage yesterday. It was like someone sent a blind kid walking into another kid who was doing the windmill of fists. Detroit got any shot they wanted, and then they made damn near every one of them.

I actually didn’t feel like the Pistons were that good defensively. They gave up some easy baskets, and Cleveland was able to shoot an okay percentage. But their easy buckets were way fewer and far between than the Pistons easy buckets.

If they want to have a chance in this series, Cleveland’s going to have to pick up their defensive intesity, and they’re going to have to shoot lights out. I think LeBron’s probably going to get his points. But Flip Murray and Larry Hughes aren’t going to be left wide open for jumpers, like they were against the Wizards. The Pistons didn’t double LeBron a whole lot today… they let him do his thing, and he made some tough shots. He’ll do that. But I don’t think they’re going to let anyone else do a lot of damage.

As for the Pistons and what they need to do to win the series… well, trying hard should just about cover it. They have a tendency to have minor lapses in focus, where things can happen like Milwaukee taking a game from them. But I don’t see Cleveland being a much bigger threat to Detroit than the Bucks were.

In the West, the Mavs and the Spurs played a pretty spectacular game, considering that San Antone had just 36 hours rest, and the Mavs had to shake the rust after a long layoff. The story of his one was Bruce Bowen sweating Dirk Nowitzki all game long. Prepare to hear Charles Barkley say that Dirk has to take Bowen down to the post about 7,102 times in the next few days. Almost as many times as he said that Kobe averaged 44 against the Suns in the regular seasons, and the Suns mauled the Lakers in those games.

This is what Dirk and the Mavs have to overcome if they want to be champions. The challenge is right there in front of them, and it is clear: Dirk Nowitzki has to find a way to be just as effective against Bruce Bowen as he was against Shane Battier and Pau Gasol. The Mavericks are a good team, but they’re not good enough to beat a great team like the Spurs if they can’t count on their superstar to give them what he gives them.

That’s just the way it has to be. 20 points from Dirk isn’t enough. It’s up to Avery Johnson to find a way to get Bowen off of Dirk, or, preferably, for Dirk to find a way to deal with it. Take him to the block, post him up, shoot over him, and inbetween shots, don’t be a skirtbag. If he gets physical, get physical back. Pick your spots, throw your own elbows, jab his ribs, go Reggie Evans on him if you have to. The league won’t do a thing about it.

Also… you may have noticed a little word verification thingie when you leave comments. For some reason, I was bombarded with spam this weekend, and hopefully, this stems it a little bit. I hope it’s not too much of a pain in the ass…

Steve Nash collected his 2nd MVP trophy yesterday, receiving 57 first place votes, more than double the 22 of his closest competitor. That was Kobe, who, despite having the 2nd-most 1st place votes, come in 4th in the balloting. 22 of the 125 voters left Kobe off their ballots completely, which means there are 22 people who should no longer be allowed to vote.

We’ve gone into detail about it before, and there’s no need to re-hash it all again. But I don’t think that the Suns beating the Lakers, a majestic 2-seed over 7-seed triumph, validates Nash’s selection over Kobe Bryant, whatsoever. I have believed, and still do, that the Suns put up amazing offensive numbers primarily because of the system in which they play. Diaw’s numbers are great because of the system. Marion’s numbers are great because of the system. Tim Thomas even seems great because of the system.

That’s not to say that Nash doesn’t have anything to do with it; obviously, he does. He’s a great point guard. The best pure distributor in the NBA. They were discussing on SportsCenter yesterday whether or not Nash is a hall-of-famer, and I’d say yes. Maybe he doesn’t have the longevity quite yet, but he’s certainly on that path. I do think Nash is great. I do not think he is the MVP.

Anyway, elsewhere in the voting… LeBron James officially finished 2nd with 688 points to Nash’s 924, Dirk Nowitzki was 3rd with 544, Kobe Bryant 4th with 483, and Chauncey Billups 5th with 430. After that, there was a major drop-off, to Dwyane Wade with 87 points, and Elton Brand with 50; Brand being the only guy outside of the Top 5 to get a 1st place vote. Tim Duncan got two 2nd-place votes to finish behind Brand. Tony Parker got a third-place vote, and four 5ths, while Allen Iverson (?) and Shawn Marion had one 5th place vote each.

It’s a bit of a mystery as to why Kobe Bryant took just three shots and scored 1 point in the 2nd half of Saturday’s Game 7 against the Suns. Who knows why Kobe does anything, but here’s my best guess.

The game started out with the Lakers going through their “Let’s get everyone involved” act. Kwame Brown was getting great looks in the post, and missing easy shot after easy shot. Clearly, nerves were bothering him. Lamar Odom did a little bit of the same, and the Lakers worked themselves into a pretty substantial hole.

In the 2nd quarter, Kobe took over a little bit, and while he shot well, and hit his usual impossible shots, the Suns lead grew. The Lakers defense was so atrocious, that even with Kobe hitting everything he threw up, the best the Lakers could do was trade buckets… which is not a winning proposition if you’re down 20.

So the only way for the Lakers to limit the Suns offense at all was to limit their number of possessions. Slow the game down, pound it inside. Which is what they tried… and again, what they sucked at. Not even Brian Cook could hit a shot. And by the time the 4th quarter rolled around, it was hopeless, and Kobe sat a lot of the 4th anyway.

That’s my best guess as to Kobe’s thought process. I’ve heard people say that he was trying to teach the team a lesson, that they can’t win without him scoring, but I don’t buy that. Now, I think that’s something he’s done before… particularly when Shaq was around. I think it’s happened before. But in a Game 7, there’s just no way he’s going to sabotage his team to make a point… that just doesn’t make any sense. Love him or hate him, I think you at least have to concede that in a Game 7, he’ll do whatever he thinks is best for his team to win.

But yeah, the Lakers were terrible on Saturday… and the Suns were phenomenal. It was the perfect storm. The Suns shot the ball extremely well, they had their tempo, they seemed energized by the crowd and the situation, and they were great. And as great as they were, the Lakers were bad… Kwame Brown and Smush Parker in particular seemed overwhelmed by the atmosphere, which is not good, particularly for Smush, because he’s not much of a player to begin with.

If they could’ve replaced him with even an average point guard, I think they win the series. He made bad decisions on offense, was no threat to hit any kind of a shot, letting Nash roam around and double-team anyone he wanted, and he couldn’t even think about pretending to guard Steve Nash on defense. And, in Game 7 in particular, Kwame Brown was terrible on defense. Just as stiff and clueless as you could imagine. They put him in any kind of a pick-and-roll, and it was an automatic bucket.